The August sale of Porter Square Books, Cambridge, Mass., marked the "fourth prominent Boston-area independent bookstore to change hands in the past five years," the Boston Globe reported, adding that if "you ask these new owners what they know about the business that they didn't before they switched sides of the cash register, almost to a person they let out a laugh that's less an expression of mirth than a question: 'How much time do you have?' "
"What I miss about my career in industry are the long plane rides where I could read undisturbed," said Jeff Mayersohn, who bought the Harvard Book Store in 2008. "Owning a bookstore is a lot of work."
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| Future booksellers? Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney and his wife, Julie, at last year's Macy's Thanksgiving parade. (photo: blog.abramsbooks.com) | |
Describing bookstore ownership as "a bed-and-breakfast for people who want to discuss novels with strangers, not serve them muffins," the Globe suggested that owning a bookshop "has become the modern retirement--or midlife escape--fantasy."
"Every day we come home and say this is the best thing we ever did," said Dina Mardell, the new co-owner of Porter Square Books.
In 2010, Gillian and Bill Kohli purchased Wellesley Booksmith (now Wellesley Books), and a year later, when no other buyer emerged for the New England Mobile Book Fair in Newton, Tom Lyons stepped in: "I had no intention of owning a bookstore, but I couldn't get it out of my mind."
Who will be the next bookseller stepping up to the plate? The Boston Globe wrote that bestselling author Jeff Kinney and his wife have plans to build a three-story building in their hometown of Plainville and "also took a two-day book store crash course (with Paz & Associates) and are pondering their next move." Kinney said they would love to open a bookstore: "We understand that we'll have to become a destination location in order to create a viable business. We're currently looking at ways to do that, and if we feel confident that we can get to a break-even state over five years, we'll go forward with the plan."